The UNC Wilmington baseball team came out swinging Saturday in a 7-3 win against the Miami (Ohio) Red Hawks.

The Seahawks have been looking for their first win since the season opener, when they crushed Jacksonville University, 20-7.

After that, Jacksonville won the next two games in the three-game series against UNCW before losing to nationally ranked College of Charleston and Marist, leaving the team in a four-game losing streak.

“Players came back to the ballpark knowing it was a new day and another opportunity,” coach Mark Scalf said. “Last night we talked about locking in and playing every pitch and I thought we did a much better job of that today.”

Hoping to get its first win in the Hughes Bros. Tires Challenge, UNCW sent redshirt senior pitcher Daniel Cropper to the mound. After striking out a career-high twelve batters against Jacksonville, Cropper pitched eight and two-thirds innings before getting pulled.

He finished with four strikeouts and allowed three runs, all off solo homeruns. MU first baseman Kyle Weldon had two blasts and catcher Adam Weisenburger belted another. All of the runs scored off of Cropper this season have been solo home runs, as well.

“It’s just mistakes mostly, I know today the lefty hit two mistake pitches, which you just have to tip your hat to a player like that,” Cropper said. “It’s something that I will continue to work on getting down on the zone and getting pitches where I want them.”

Scalf pulled Cropper for freshman Kelly Secrest. He entered the game to end the eight and begin the ninth inning, before being replaced by sophomore Blaze Tart who recorded the save for the Seahawks.

After not scoring above five runs the last three games, the Seahawks came out swinging immediately as the junior leadoff hitter Cameron Cockman landed a base hit to right field and a fielding error allowed him to advance to second base.

Cockman, Alex Hill (senior), Hunter Ridge (Soph.) and Ryan LaGrange (freshman) all notched two hits for UNCW, as the Seahawks collected 12 total hits.

LaGrange, who made the move to second base from the outfield for this game is enjoying a four-game hitting streak.

“I work real hard during batting practice and I try to make it just like game situations,” LaGrange said. “But I can always improve.”

After playing at Laney High School, LaGrange added that he enjoys still playing in Wilmington and having a hometown crowd.

Despite facing three different teams in three days, Scalf does not think it should be big of a challenge for the team.

“It’s very similar to conference and postseason tournament. It’s our one chance during the course of the year to mimic conference play where you face different teams at different times of the day,” Scalf said. “Facing different philosophies in opponents helps for the end of the year.”

Sunday, the Seahawks will take on West Virginia in the final game of the Challenge games at 1 p.m. at Brooks Field. The Mountaineers are 2-3 and 1-1 in the tournament with a loss to Marist and a win against MU.